Support for tents and the like.



I. S. PURCELL.

SUPPORT FOR TENTS AND THE LIKE.

APPLICATION FILED IAN. 5.1918.

I PW 5.

TED @TATES PATENT OFFICE.

ISAAC S. PURCELL, OF OAK PARK, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOR TO TEN'IOIBED COMPANY, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, A CORPORATION OF ILLINOIS.

SUPPORT FOR TENTS AND THE LIKE.

specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Nov. 26, 1918.

Original application filed November 15, 1917, Serial No. 202,169. Divided and this application filed January T 0 all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, ISAAC S. PURCELL, citizen of the United States, residing at Oak Park, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Supports for Tents and the like; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

My invention relates to supports for tents, canopies, or the like; and in certain of its aspects relates more particularly to supporting ribs or frames having portions adapted to be speedily erected and to be partially flexedwhen erected, for the purpose of affording certain advantages. In erecting tents or canopies without employing center poles, it has heretofore been customary to use tent-supporting ribs socketed opposite each other at their lower ends and adj oined in one way or another at the ridge or top of the tent. Where such ribs are rigid, the slope of the same (as indicated by dotted lines in Figure 1 of the accompanying drawings) greatly reduces the eflective width of the inclosed space. On the other hand, if the ribs were permanently bowed, they could not be packed compactly or rolled up with the tent or canopy proper into a slender and readily portable bundle. Likewise, where a rib has been formed into a continuous arch after the manner of a wagon bow, the substantially horizontal upper portion of the tent has proven too flat to afford a good watershed; and even if made of rather resilient material, such arched ribs assumed a permanent set, thereby preventing them from being wrapped in as compact a form as could be done if they resumed their normal straightness. Moreover, where tent or canopy ribs have been used under conditions compelling a flexing of the same while they were erected, the strain due to this flexing has gradually enlarged the sockets for the lower ends of the ribs, and there likewise has often been difficulty in properly limiting the entrance of the end of the rib into its socket.

My invention aims to overcome these and other objections to the constructions heretofore in use, partly by providing a rib convention Serial No. 210,439.

struction which will afford the Width-enlarging bowed formation near its lower end, while likewise affording the superior Water shedding of the straight-sided peak format10n at the ridge of the tent; partly by providing a cheap form of rib designed for securing rigidity and flexibility respectively in its upper and lower portions; partly by providing simple means for effectively preventing an enlargement of the sockets by the strains on the rib portions entering the same; and partly by providing simple means for limiting the entrance of each rib end into the corresponding socket. In one of its most commercial applications, my invention relates to means for supporting a tent over a folding cot, and in this connection it aims also to utilize some of the hinge portions of the cot both as parts of sockets for the rib ends and as bushings for preventing an enlargement of the socket; also, to utilize a portion of a leg adjacent to such a socket as a stop for the rib part entering the said socket. \Vhile my invention in its Various aspects may be applied to a wide variety of embodiments, it is particularly suitable for use with folding cots of the type shown in my copending application No. 202169, filed November 15, 1917, of which this application is a division, and is therefore illustrated in such an embodiment in the copending drawings. In these drawings, in which further objects of my inwill also appear (particularly when taken in connection with the following specification) Fig. 1 is an end view of a folding cot and of a tent-supporting frame mounted thereon.

Fig. 2 is a fragmentary side elevation of the same.

Fig. 3 is an enlarged fragmentary view of certain portions of Fig. 2, showing the use of the hinge plates and of one of the legs of the cot in connection with the socketing of a tent rib and with the stopping of the latter.

Fig. 4 is a fragmentary perspective view on a still larger scale, showing the hinge- I joined portions of the cot frame, which portions are shown in section in Fig. 3.

Fig. 5 is an enlarged perspective view of a portion of one of the ribs, showing one method of joining the flexible and inflexible portions of such a rib, when. the latter is made of angle steel.

Fig. 6 is a transverse section through Fig. 5, along the line 66.

Fig. 7 is a perspective view of-a port on of a tent-supporting rib consisting of an 1nflexible channel-sectioned bar and a relatively smaller and flexible round bar joined thereto.

In the embodiments of the drawings, the cot as illustrated includes a substantially horizontal frame comprising end rails 1 and side rails 2 connected to each other by L- shaped hinge plates 3 and 4: made of steel and secured to the side rail and end rail respectively by rivets 5 and by a thumb-bolt 6. The horizontal frame of the cot is equipped near each of its corners with a vertical perforation, which perforation desirably is located in a portion of the side rail 2 disposed between the hinge plates, and

which perforation preferably is continued through both the upper and the lower hinge plates. In other words, I preferably equip the hinge plates (which may be exact duplicates of each "other) with perforations alining with a vertical bore through the side rail 2 when these hinge plates are bolted to this side rail. I also preferably dispose the said bore and perforations directly above the end of one of the legs 7 of the cot, so that the upper end of this leg will act as a stop for the tip of the rib 8 when the latter is inserted through the said alined bores as shown in Fig. Q.

For the ribbing or supporting frame of the tent or canopy, I preferably use companion members suitably a-djoined at their upper ends, as by a pivot pin 9, and each consisting of a lower flexible and resilient portion 8 forming an extension for a substantially inflexible upper portion 10. With the rib element thus constructed, it will be evident from Fig. 1 that in erecting the frame on the cot, the pivotal connection between the portions 10 will tend to hold the companion members in substantially straight-sided angular formation. However, the vert cal socketing of the lower ends of the flexible rib portions 8 will tend to hold the companion portions in relatively spaced vertical positions. Consequently, the pivotally adjoined ribs will assume a compromise position, substantially after the manner of Fig. 1, with the straight elements 10 forming a peak for the tent, while the flexible portions 8 afford bowed connections between the elements 10 and the frame of the cot. When thus shaped, it will be evident from a comparison with the dotted lines of Fig. 1 that the ribs will hold the sides of the'tent almost vertical for some distance immediately above the frame of the cot, thus considerably widening the interior of the tent over what'it would be with entirely dotted lines of Fig. 1.

upper portion a rigid ribs arranged substantially along the Since the bed of the cot is usually substantially in the same general plane with the frame of the cot (as shown more clearly in my copending application above referred to) and since the occupants of the tent usually occupy horizontal positions when in the same, I therefore obtain a considerably increased effective width of the hood or tent, thus being able to utilize a cot of a given width where a wider and heavier structure would be required with the old methods of rib con struction.

To secure the desired combination of flexible and inflexible rib parts in a simple and cheap construction, I preferably use as its member having several webs, and preferably use a round bar of relatively smaller section for the lower portion of each rib member. I also preferably form the lower end of the upper or inflexible rib portion into a socket through which the said round bar extends, thereby simplifying a firm uniting of the two parts. For example, the upper rib portion 10 may be constructed of angle steel as shown in Fig. 5, and the lower ends of the webs of this angle Steel may be formed substantially into a tube 11 closely fitting the round steel bar 8 which forms the resilient element of the same rib. Then the upper end of this round bar may be formed into an eye 12 secured to one web of the channel steel by a rivet 13. section, I may employ a steel channel 14 similarly formed at its lower end into a tube 11 and similarly united by a rivet 18 to an eye 12 at the upper end of a round rod 8. In either case, it will be obvious that by disposing one of the webs of the angle steel 10, or the back of the channel 14, toward the side of the tent, the other web of the former, or the two webs of the channel, will act as stiffeners to prevent the upper rib portion from being appreciably flexed by the flexing of the rod 8.

Moreover, the two perforated hingle plates 3 and 4E which also act as guides or socket portions for the free end of the bar 8 will prevent the tilting strain (due to the flexing of this bar) from digging into the wood of the rail 2 and thereby gradually enlarging the perforation in the latter. I thus obtain the same benefits that would be afforded by the use of auxiliary bushing for this perforation, but without employing any added parts. Likewise, by using the leg 7 as a stop for the rod 8, I limit the socketing of this bar to a uniform depth, thereby enabling me to secure the proper symmetry in the appearance of the tent. To reduce the number of such pivotally adjoined pairs of semi-flexible ribs required for each tent or hood, I desirably connect the pivotally Or, instead of using steel of angular joined upper rib elements also to ridge members 15, which in turn may be suitably braced by folding members 16 connecting the same with certain of the parts 10. Then, when disassembling the frame, the ridge rods 15 will fold compactly and substantially parallel to the two semi-flexible ribs to which each is continuously pivoted. However, while I have pictured and described the supporting frame construction of my invention as applied to a folding cot, I do not wish to be limited to such an embodiment, it being evident that (with the exception of employing the legs of the cot as socket-entrance elements) the tent-supporting frame of the drawings would function equally well if the frame including the members 1 and 2 were lying directly on the ground, or if any other suitably spaced sockets were provided in place of the vertical sockets near the corners of the cot frame. Likewise, while I have pictured and described ribs as constructed of materials of certain sections, I do not wish to be limited to these or other details of the construction and arrangement here described, it being evident that the same might be modified in many ways without departing from the spirit of my invention.

Moreover, it will be obvious that if each of the pivotally joined rib members consisted of a simple rod or equivalent element of uniform flexibility from end to end, the upper portions of these members would not con stitute the straight-sided peak formation which affords such a highly desirable watershed. Such rods would bow into a Gothic arch formation as shown in my copending application No. 17 57 56, filed June 20, 1917; and in View of the claims of the latter, I am not here broadly claiming the combined peak and arch formation due to the use of spaced and substantially parallel sockets in connection with pivotally joined rib members, but only claim such formations as are produced by semi-flexible rib members.

1. A supportin frame for a tent, comprising a plurality of upwardly directed sockets arranged in oppositely disposed pairs, and frame members each associated respectively with one of the said pairs of sockets; each frame member comprising a pair of substantially rigid elements pivotally connected to each other, and a pair of flexible and normally straight extensions rigidly secured respectively to the free ends of the aforesaid substantially rigid elements, the free ends of the said flexible extensions being socketed in the opposed sockets comprising one of the said pairs, and the said opposed sockets being arranged for compelling a flexing of the said extensions when inserting the latter therein.

2. A tent supporting frame as per claim 1, including a frame equipped near its corners with the socket formations and comprising end and side rails, and metal hinge plates connecting the end and side rails at the corners of the frame, the hinge plates being equipped with perforations affording part of the said socket formations.

3. A tent supporting member for use with a pair of relatively spaced sockets, in affording a frame of Gothic arch section, comprising a pair of pivotally joined elements, and a pair of normally straight extension elements rigidly secured respectively to the free ends of the said pivotally joined elements and respectively engaging the said socket, the said extension elements being of greater flexibility than the said pivotally joined elements.

4. A tent-supporting frame member comprising a pair of angle steel bars pivoted at their upper ends to each other, and a pair of round steel rods each rigidly secured at its upper end to the lower end of one of the angle steel bars and Within the angle of the latter and each forming an extension for the latter.

5. A rib for a tent-support, comprising in normally straight formation, an anglesectioned bar, and a bar of relatively smaller section extending into the angle of the former bar for only a fraction of its length and rigidly secured to the aforesaid bar.

6. Tent-supporting rib construction as per claim 5, in which an end portion of the angle-sectioned bar is contracted to embrace a part of the other bar.

7. A rib for a tent-support, comprising an angular-1y sectioned bar fashioned at one end. into a tubular formation, and a second bar forming substantially an extension thereof and extending through the said tubular formation and secured beyond the said tubular formation to the first named bar.

8. A rib for a tent-support, comprising a pair of bars permanently fastened together and forming substantial continuations of each other, one thereof being resilient and flexed when in use, and the other thereof having means stiffening the same to prevent its being flexed in the direction in which the said resilient bar is flexed when in use.

Signed at Chicago, Illinois, January 2,

1918. ISAAC S. PURCELL.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each. by addressing the "Commissioner of Patents,

Washington, D. 0. 

